‘Katie, you’re a paragon.’
‘What’s a paragon?’
I’ve been visiting several of our students midway through their work placement years (I cite a snippet of dialogue from one of these visits). I’m always receptive to criticism from employers about the quality of our students or our PR course, but the feedback has been universally positive. Even about their writing, editing and proofreading skills (it’s unusual for those of a Lynne Truss disposition to praise those younger than them on this count).
I’d love to claim some credit, but struggle to make a direct link between the generally unfocused approach of the first year students I teach in large numbers, and the professionalism of these third year placement students. Good teaching might be a factor; but growing up seems a more likely one to me. (I wasn’t a paragon; I was once described as ‘feckless’ by a tutor – and this was at postgraduate level.)
PR Studies 
Funny that – Jeeves (Wodehouse, not Ask) is oft described as a ‘paragon’ and Bertie Wooster ‘feckless’.
Surely Leeds Met isn’t turning into Blandings, or is it?
Interesting to note the Master/Servant dynamic that characterises most relationships between tutors and their students in the more traditional academic institutions. This, of course, switches around sometimes when students graduate and enter practice.
I myself was referred to, while at university, as the ‘silly boy’.